1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved water treatment chemical product and in particular to a water treatment product, packaging means, dispensing means, and delivery means for the water treatment product.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Many industrial, commercial, institutional, and residential water supplies suffer from objectionable conditions. Often, treatment measures are implemented with the addition of chemical treatments to the water supply, including for example phosphate or silicate compounds. In order to make the addition of the chemical treatment into the water supply, the chemical product must be made available in a deliverable and usable form.
Products and delivery methods for water treatment processes are known. In the most commonly used form, the water treatment material for point-of-use applications is delivered as a solid, powdered, platelet, or granular material. The material could be packaged in a number of ways, ranging from bulk containers and bins, to smaller packages, pails, or cartridges.
Examples include many commonly available water treatment compositions which are often delivered or sold in bags (whether cloth, paper or plastic) or buckets. Perhaps the most common water treatment composition, commercially available pool chlorine, gives an indication of the variety of ways in which the chemical may be available. The problem faced by users of the chemical is that chlorine for example may be toxic and it is unwise to allow the chlorine to contact exposed skin and especially the eyes.
The form in which the chemical is available also often defines the packaging that the product may be sold in. For example, due to the fact that chlorine release agents are noxious, they are generally not sold in paper bags and almost always sold in plastic buckets.
In smaller, point-of-use type, removable cartridge type, bypass or flow-through type dispensers, the most widely used water treatment materials are either powdered, platelet, granular, or solid products. These materials are slowly dissolved and are dispensed into the water flow-stream. The vessel in which the water treatment product is contained typically requires constant attention. This is typically caused because insoluble compounds form in the dispensers causing the materials to cake-up, or become mushy, and clog the dispenser fittings and tubing.
With powdered, platelet, granular, or solid water treatment products, the formation of insoluble materials limits the time the dispensers can be used without servicing. In some cases, up to 50% of the water treatment product can be transformed into an insoluble mush (typically a form of calcium phosphate).
Typical with powdered, platelet, granular, or solid products, after the operator pours in the material and fills the dispensing vessel with water, a period of time must be allowed for all the material to soak, and the entrapped air or gases to rise up and out of the material. Typically, a bleed-screw is used to attempt to vent out all of the entrapped air or gas after the vessel has been pressurized.
Another form of water treatment material is a liquid product. Liquid products are typically dispensed using a mechanical metering pump. The use of a metering pump has the effect of limiting the concentration of the solids suspended in solution as different pump types are not amenable to the pumping of solids in solution. If the concentration of solids is too high, then the pump can be fouled and its operating life shortened.
An important distinction in the above discussion is the difference between a solution and a suspension. Suspensions, colloids and solutions are different kinds of “mixtures” comprising at least two components, notionally called A and B. The difference lies in the size (diameter, extension) of the particles of A surrounded by B.
In the case of suspensions and colloids, A is generally a solid and B is a liquid. The solid particles of a suspension are so coarse that they settle to the bottom of the container when stirring stops. The solids in a colloid are ground down to a size of about 1/1000 millimeter or less, so that thermal motion, electrostatic repulsion and other forces usually keep the particles aloft. Yet even in a colloid, there are still identifiable chunks of matter present, though “visible” only under the electron microscope or indirectly by light scattering.
In the case of solutions, on the other hand, the “fineness of division” goes down right to the atomic (or molecular) scale, that is millionths of a millimeter. Solutions of A in B can only be made if A is soluble in B, that is if the molecules of B have an “affinity” to those of A which surpasses the affinity of the A and B molecules among themselves. The solubility, however, is also influenced by the increase of “disorder” which happens upon dissolution.
So generally when most water treatment products are added to water, at the very first moment, a suspension is formed, which, in certain cases spontaneously transforms into a solution. This only occurs if the water treatment product is soluble in water. Some materials for example silicon dioxide, are practically insoluble in water.
For dispensing into a fluid stream, conventional solid, powdered or granular water treatment products are first diluted with a fluid, usually water, in concentrations up to approximately 360 kg/m3 or 3 lbs/gallon (US). This initial mixing could be done in a processing facility, for the packaging and delivery of liquid product to the customer, or it could be done on-site at the point-of-use through what are referred to as day-tanks, flow-through type dispensers, or bypass type dispensers. With the addition of elemental components, such as zinc, the elemental component would first be dissolved in an acid solution then added to the water treatment product. This limits the use of elemental components in deliverable solid, powdered or granular water treatment products.
The abovementioned products and delivery forms all have their shortcomings. The novel new form of the material in this invention has demonstrated desirable characteristics of limited solubility and controlled solubility that are sought after in the water treatment industry. The present invention is designed to be easier to use, easier to transport (lending itself to mail-order shipping and servicing), provides higher capacity in a more reliable, cleaner, and manageable form. The water treatment product of this invention is particularly important for the provision of another alternative of water treatment to the customer.